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2023-2024 School Year Information

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Academic Policies, 2022-2023


Gradebook Categories and Weights
The grade book is composed of categories and has changed from previous years: 

1) The number of categories has changed (5 → 2).

  • Classwork + Homework = Unit Activities
  • Formative + Summative + Interim Assessments = Assessments

2) The categories have different weights.

  • Unit Activities = 55%
  • Assessments = 45%

Amount of Assignments
So that grade books are balanced and representative of students’ efforts, teachers will give the following assignments per week: 

Assignment Type

Assignments

Unit Activities

1 x week

Assessments

5 x Quarter

Amount of Homework
So that students’ time and health are preserved, teachers aim for the following amount of homework by class. Please note that these are guidelines and that individual students’ homework can be greater or lesser depending on their schedule. 

Grade

Amount of Time

Grade 9

60 Minutes

Grade 10

90 Minutes

Grade 11

90 Minutes

Grade 12

120 Minutes – 180 minutes

  • Teachers will distribute surveys ongoing throughout the year so that students can share the amount of homework they are assigned per class.
  • Teachers can use this data to recalibrate and ensure they are striving toward the goals above. 

Assessments
  • Students will access assessments on Illuminate, AP Classroom, or Google Classroom. 
  • Teachers will curve assessments as needed. 
  • Students can retake an assessment for full credit. 

Grading Expectations
  • Teachers will give the following grades for Unit Activities and Assessments based on completion and quality: 0 (Academic Honesty), 3 (Missing), 50 (Lowest Possible Grade for Completed Work), 51-100 (based on teacher’s criteria or rubric). 
  • Teachers will strive to return Unit Activities to students within 3 days and assessments within 5 days. 

Makeup Work
  • Students should contact a teacher directly by professional email if their absence only impacts one class. 
  • Assignments lose 10% off for each day they are late. After 5 days, the max grade a student can earn is 50.

Extenuating Circumstances
  • Extenuating circumstances are defined as loss, hardship/duress, and extreme stress. 
  • Students should contact the grade team lead if it impacts multiple classes. Grade teams can exempt for up to 5 days. If the student needs exemptions beyond the 5 days, the grade team lead and grade level LT will make a decision. 
  • The Grade Team Leads are as follows: Grade 9 – Mr. Maldonado, Grade 10 – Ms. Perez, Grade 11 – Ms. Mohan, and Grade 12 – Mr. Colon

Academic Honesty
Teachers distinguish between academic dishonesty and academic errors: 

Type of Plagiarism

Examples

Common Academic Errors

  • Student paraphrases or directly quotes an author. Does not cite. 
  • Student paraphrases or directly quotes an author. Cites incorrectly. 

Academic Dishonesty

  • Student represents the words (paraphrase or direct quote) of another author as his/her own work. This includes changing words/phrases on a given sentence or quotation. 
  • Student submits an assignment or sections of an assignment from another author (student or other) as his/her work. 
  • Submitting piece of work for more than one course without permission from the teacher.
  • Student gives their work to another student to copy or copies another student’s work. 

Students can expect the following outcomes: 

Issue

Gradebook Guidance

Makeup Policy

Common Academic Errors 

Assignment is dropped one grade according to the grading expectations (100→85). Teacher seeks to understand the root cause, and re-teaches to prevent the issue. Student resubmits work. 

N/A

Academic Dishonesty

Assignment entered as a zero and flagged as missing into IC. In addition, it should be entered in the comments that the scholar received a “0” due to cheating. Feedback conversation with culture. In the event that a student is caught copying other’s work, the copier receives the 0 and the copied has a feedback conversation. 

Scholar can redo the assignment but will only receive a maximum grade of 70%. Only the copier has an academic consequence if a copier and copied are involved.


Infinite Campus
Students will see two codes used in Infinite Campus:
  • X = “Exempt” for assignments due to extenuating circumstances (severe illness, etc). Assignment will not impact student grade.
  • M = “Missing” for work that was not submitted.  Students will automatically be assigned a 35% with this code.

Grade Floor
The minimum score for a final quarter grade  is 55. At the end of each quarter, each course grade <55 will be manually changed to a minimum of 55.
GPA and Passing Scores

Grade

A+

A

A-

B+

B

B-

C+

C

C-

D

F

F

F

100-97

96-93

92-90

89-87

86-83

82-80

79-77

76-73

72-70

69-65

64-63

62-60

59-0

Standard GPA

4.33

4.00

3.67

3.33

3.00

2.67

2.33

2.00

1.67

1.33

1.00

0.67

0.00

AP GPA 

5.33

5.00

4.67

4.33

4.00

3.67

3.33

3.00

2.67

1.33

1.00

0.67

0.00

 

Pass

Fail

  • 65-69.9 is now a passing score.
  • Classes which earn a score of 69-60 will now have an impact on GPA, as opposed to just counting as 0. 
  • AP and Dual Enrollment courses will earn a “1 GPA point bump.”
  • We will not offer a 5 point bump at the end of each quarter in 2021-2022. 

Graduation Policies & Credits
  • Students keep all credits for courses they passed. Grade progression and graduation will depend on credits accumulated.
  • Summer Programs and Service Learning are not a requirement for the 2021-22 school year.
  • Four-year college acceptance is not a requirement for the 2021-22 year.

Class

NY: 22 credits

ELA

4

Social Studies

4 (2 in Global, 1 in US, ½ in participation in Government, ½ in Economics)

Math

3

Science

3 (1 life, 1 physical, 1 in any life or physical science)

PE

2 (½ every year)

Health

½ credit

World Language

1

Other

Arts: 1

Other electives: 3.5